Enhancing your chances to win a bid

Often we are asked as ICanLocalize support, “How can I improve my chances to win the bidding of a project?”

Here are a few tips we believe will increment your chances to be selected for a project:

1-Your profile

First and foremost, make sure your profile is thoroughly filled in to reflect your competencies as a linguist. Privilege quality and relevance of information over quantity, client may have to review 10 profiles so make sure you grab his attention within the first 5 seconds. Put an emphasize on what makes you special. Translating your bio-notes and resume in your working languages is also an added bonus that will tell the client you know what you are talking about.

2-Your rating

Our star rating system is based on:

1- Accuracy: proofread your work before declaring the work as complete.
2- Being active: the more quality work delivered through our system, the higher you chances are you will rank high
3- Recommendations: don’t hesitate to leave feedback on clients’ profiles and ask for positive return feedback on yours.
4- Respect of deadlines: deliver your work in a timely manner. Late deliveries equal penalties, being timely is an important asset of a great localization. Bear in mind deadline is in ICL Time (link to the Timezone & deadlines page) and if you work with a reviewer, timeline refers to the overall project being completed, not translation only.

3-Cover Message

As for any job you apply to, on ICanLocalize or outside of the site, presenting yourself in a professional manner is a great asset that will help you win a bid. While ICanLocalize offers you great features in terms of applying for a job, keep in mind chances are slim that you will be the only one to do so. A good cover message will be not too short nor too long: try and avoid messages such as “I am applying for the job” (clients see you are) or the “I am available”(would you apply if you weren’t?) , refrain from copy/pasting your profile (clients do have access to it) or just sending a resume (lengthy messages often fail to grab the attention ) and last but not least if a message is too generic, client will smell a serial bidder and will doubt your dedication to his/her project. In a few lines, describe your specific abilities and turnaround as a translator for this particular project.